The Greatest Fear
"The Greatest Fear" is the 12th episode of the second season of Exosquad. Summary Able Squad arrives on Venus with the mission of locating and estimating every Neo base and troop concentration on the planet, as a prelude to invasion. While investigating a secret research facility Rita Torres and Wolf Bronski are discovered, and in the battle to retrieve them Marsala is captured. He is taken inside, and sees that the facility is for research related to Automutation Syndrome (apparently a Neo sapien version of cancer). To prevent Marsala from divulging ExoFleet plans for an invasion Marsh sets out to destroy the facility with Marsala inside. Nara is unwilling to let Marsala be killed, and she goes to rescue him. She manages to succeed before Marsh finishes demolishing the complex, and on their way out she and Marsala unwittingly capture an experimental subject that merged with the Neo mega Lysander. Synopsis :Click HERE of a detailed synopsis of " " Characters *J.T. Marsh *Alec DeLeon *Marsala Quotes *When Takagi goes to pursue a fleeing Neo e-frame: ::Marsh: "Let him go Takagi, break off pursuit. We're here to look, not fight." Kaz (returning): "Hey, can I follow orders or what?" Torres: "Takagi, only you can show off by not showin' off." *When Draconis enters the research facility: ::Lysander: "Phaeton has ordered the base closed, you have no authorization to be here." Draconis: "I command Venus, you have an ExoFleet prisoner, that's a military matter. And this base is under military protection, I demand to know what I'm protecting." Lysander: "You don't have the authorization, or the intelligence." Draconis (signalling his guards to take aim): "I'd hate to have to tell Phaeton about your unfortunate laboratory accident." Lysander: "Very well, you'll have your demonstration. Prepare the next specimen." Significant events, revelations, and other notes *The ExoFleet is in the preliminary stages of planning an invasion of Venus. *Neo megas arrive on Venus. Draconis is annoyed by them, and their secret objectives. **The Neo Megas arrogant and superior behavior towards Draconis can only result in him being distrustful of other Neo Megas. **In "Behind the Shield" this distrust has escalated into outright insubordination. The Neo Megas override and/or undermine Draconis's authority. *Nara and Marsala capture what they believe to be the Neo mega Lysander (but is in fact a subject of the AutoMutation experiments who merged with Lysander and took his appearance), and the mutating agent that the Neos had developed. *This episode gives us a better idea of what is happening to Phaeton, with regard to the strange lesions that can be seen at the sides of his face. Phaeton is apparently suffering from AutoMutation Syndrome, which is feared by all Neo sapiens. Lysander said, "The manipulated genes of Neo sapiens are inherently unstable. Cell damage can trigger AutoMutation, but injury is not necessary for AutoMutation to occur." In Phaeton's case, the events at Olympus Mons in Defying Olympus were likely the cause. As yet there seems to be no known cure for this illness. *The most prominent symptom of AutoMutation Sydrome is that the skin of the affected Neo becomes gelatinous, causing the body to lose its natural form. There also seems to be at least some pain associated with this loss of bodily cohesion. *Phaeton has apparently made finding a treatment for AutoMutation Syndrome a priority, as he has assigned many of the intelligent Neo megas to this research, and has provided them with many resources. *Automutation Syndrome research has likely suffered a severe setback with the destruction of the Neo facility, capture of the mutating agent by the ExoFleet, and the deaths of a number of the involved Neo megas. 25 12